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Farm Bill nutrition programs help feed people

A leader of a state food bank association says the 2018 budget resolution passed by the House of Representatives would slash funding for nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, says thousands of people would go hungry if SNAP and other nutrition programs lose funding.

“We saw in the last Farm Bill that the SNAP program was quite a bit of the funding, but it was also because the economy was in a place where so many people were eligible that the program was doing its job,” she says. “So we want to make sure that the program is there to be timely, targeted, and temporary.”

She tells Brownfield that SNAP can be compared to crop insurance plans.

“If there is an emergency, a natural disaster, a drought, the Farm Bill is there for folks and it’s also there when that emergency is there is no food in the refrigerator,” she says. “It’s a vital program that enables Americans across the country to help supplement their food budget.”

She says SNAP provides ten times more assistance than food banks can provide.

“The importance of this program is it were to diminish or be very limited, the charitable sector cannot make up the difference to help our friends and neighbors make sure they have enough food to feed their family,” she says.

Weikert Bryant spoke about the importance of SNAP at Senator Donnelly’s latest Farm Bill Listening Session.

Audio: Emily Weikert Bryant, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry